business The Manila Times SATURDAY
B 5
D e cember 4, 2010
Hyundai to hike Tuscon selling price
BY BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA REPORTER
performance as the firm increases the number of dealers in the country.
H
Maria Fe Perez-Agudo, HARI presi- dent and chief executive, told report- ers that company sales by yearend would likely reach 20,000 units. Latest industry data showed that HARI sold 17,118 units as of end- October, 90.4 percent higher than last year. The company’s sales ranked third, behind Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. Perez-Agudo said HARI is opti- mistic that the robust growth posted this year would spill over to next year, as their dealership network would increase to 44 dealers from the current 36 by mid-2011. She said the company’s bestselling models are Starex and Tucson, with the latter contributing a fourth of total sales. Perez-Agudo said HARI has back orders of 5,000 Tucson units, which
they hope to serve next quarter. There is a global shortage of Tucson supply, the Hyundai executive said, adding that the company may jack up the model’s price by 2 percent to 5 percent next year. The Tucson currently costs
P900,000 to P1.5 million. HARI on Thursday night launched the new Accent, which would be available in January. The 1.4-liter manual variant
would have an introductory price of P588,000, while the 1.6-liter auto- matic would cost P788,000. Perez-Agudo said the company targets to sell 500 Accent units monthly.
She said HARI plans to introduce a new Asian utility model by the end of next year, as well as a pickup truck in 2012 to complete its product lineup.
Clark remits dividends
CLARK Development Corp. (CDC) has remitted the compulsory divi- dends from earnings last year to the national government. On Thursday, CDC President Benigno Ricafort handed the check worth P319.83 million, representing the national government’s share, to National Treasurer Roberto Tan at the Department of Finance. Ricafort said that the amount ac- counts for half of the unappropri- ated retained earnings of CDC as of December last year.
During the said period, the com-
pany had realized a total income of P639.66 million. “Half of the P319.8 million has now been remitted to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), while the other half will go to the Bases Conversion Develop- ment Authority, which is CDC’s par- ent company,” Ricafort said. The declaration of dividends was made after the Philippine Export- Import Credit Agency, the guaran- tor for CDC’s $9.97-million loan with Deutsche Bank, approved the company’s request to finally give the
government and its parent company their share from the state firm’s earnings. CDC availed the loan from Deutsche Bank to buy a terminal radar for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport. The loan has kept the company from declaring dividends. Under Republic Act 7656 or the Dividends Law of 1994, government financial institutions and govern- ment-owned and -controlled corpo- rations are mandated to remit half of the income earned in each fiscal year to the BTr.
“This remittance is in support to the administration’s fiscal consoli- dation efforts to realize revenues,” Ricafort said. Tan said the amount given by
CDC would become part of the na- tional government’s income, which is classified as revenues generated from “other offices.” At end-October, the government
derived received P59.2 billion from these other offices. KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ
GSIS disburses higher pensions at end-October
THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has increased the disbursement of pension benefits by more than a tenth at end-October. In a statement, GSIS said that in the first 10 months of the year, its disbursement of monthly pension benefits reached almost P19 billion, up by 11.36 percent from P16.87 billion the same period last year. The increase was attributed to
the growing number of pension- ers that the fund services every year and to the pension increase implemented in January 2010. The GSIS hiked the benefit for
existing and qualified regular pensioners by 1.5 percent, based on their 2005 monthly pension. The same increase was granted to members whose pensions started after 2005, based on their original monthly pension. Of the total amount of benefits paid in January to October this year, P16.38 billion were paid to old-age pensioners, while P2.4 billion were given to survivorship pensioners.
The fund has close to 280,000 ac tive pension- ers , old-age and sur vivorship combined and disburses an average of P1.7 billion in pension
benefits ev ery month. GSIS pensioners remain the highest earning retirees in the country today. Besides their monthly pension, eligible old-age members are entitled to cash gifts at the end of the year, which they receive electronically. With the use of their eCard, GSIS members can withdraw their monthly pension, cash gift, and even the proceeds of their pension loan from any Megalink, Bancnet, or Expressnet ATMs nationwide. Meanwhile, pensioners living abroad can also withdraw the same benefits and loan proceeds from any ATM abroad with a VISA Plus Network at the currency of the country they are in. GSIS President and General Manager Robert Vergara said the management and the board of trustees are study- ing ways to make it more convenient for pensioners to renew their active status. “Our vision is to harness
technology so that eventually, all our pensioners need not come to the GSIS office for renewal of their active status. They can just do it in the comfort of their own homes through technology-enabled means,” he said. KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ
YUNDAI Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) expects sales growth in 2011 to equal this year’s strong
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